This invention relates to ink jet printers, and particularly manufacture of orifice plates for use with ink jet printers and assembly therewith.
Generally, thermal ink jet printers have a print cartridge. The print cartridge often includes a print head having an orifice plate defining one or more arrays of numerous orifices through which droplets of fluid are expelled onto a medium to generate a desired pattern.
Orifice plates are often manufactured in sheets, and separated by streets or gaps in the orifice plates. Along the streets are break tabs that couple adjacent orifice plates. The amount of orifice plates in each sheet is directly affected by the width of the streets. It is desired to minimize the size of the street width and thereby minimize the material cost per individual orifice plate.
The orifice plate has a core plate material that is typically formed of a metal. The orifice plates are separated through a singulation process along the break tabs. Typically, an area of the core plate material at the break tab is exposed during this process. Often, the metals forming the core plate material are susceptible to corrosion by some fluids used in the cartridges. The exposed metal in the orifice plate sometimes forms a galvanic cell with some of the fluids used in the cartridge. With corrosion or the formation of a galvanic cell with the orifice plate, the cartridge is more likely to be rendered inoperable prematurely.
Often the exposed areas of the plate are encapsulated with an inert coating. However, the coating often extends over the plate to at least partially block the orifices through which fluid is to be expelled in a printing process. Consequently, an adequate margin between the orifices and exposed areas is employed. The size of the print head die onto which the plate is attached is thereby directly affected. It is desired to minimize the size of the print head die due to the costs associated with the material used therein. Accordingly, it is desired to manufacture orifice plates that minimize print head die size, minimize material costs, resist corrosion and minimize galvanic cell formation.
An orifice plate of a fluid ejection device comprises a rectangular plate body having an edge and a plurality of nozzle arrays, wherein the edge has a pair of recesses therealong, and a break tab in between the pair of recesses along the edge.
Many of the attendant features of this invention will be more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description and considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference symbols designate like parts throughout.